Framing the European Union and Building the Media Agenda: The 2004 European Parliamentary Elections in the Spanish Daily Press

Abstract

This article uses the analysis of the 2004 European elections in the Spanish press as a case study that can be broached from the agenda building and framing theoretical frameworks. We seek to compare the media agenda in the 2004 and 1999 European elections by use of a content analysis in order to evaluate the impact of new real-world conditions (the March 11 Madrid bombings) and new strategies of political actors after the March 14 general elections concerning foreign affairs on the news coverage. The research also aims to advance framing research by identifying news frames (as the “conflict frame” and the “political game frame”) that can link this study with prior ones.

KEYWORDS:

• agenda building
• European elections
• European Union
• framing
• political communication
• Spanish media

The author would like to thank Ainhoa Carrasco Robles and Lucía Hernández Ayala for their work as coders for the study and Diana Redondo for her assistance in introducing the data to SPSS.

Notes

Cohen's kappas of 0.61–0.80 indicate substantial agreement between coders; values of 0.81–1.0 reflect almost perfect agreements (Cohen, 1960).

Daily readers between April 2004 and March 2005 (http://www.aimc.es).

Ibid.

Ibid.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosa Berganza

Rosa Berganza Conde is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication II at the University Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid, Spain.